February 11th

Olmert\'s Career Barely Surviving ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) February 11, 2008 - 9:32pm Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert\'s political career has managed, by the skin of its teeth, to survive the recent Winograd Report, which lambasted the Israeli government and the Israeli military\'s handling of the second Lebanon War in 2006. However, if the bereaved parents of the Israeli soldiers who died and the reservists who survived the war have anything to do with it, Olmert will soon be history. » Read more

Analysis: Is Gaza Blockade A Legitimate Tool Of War? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Robbie Sabel - (Opinion) February 11, 2008 - 9:30pm The British foreign secretary issued a carefully crafted statement this Friday expressing "concern" at reports that Israel had reduced electricity supplies to Gaza and called on Israel to "reverse its decision" and to "fulfill its obligations under international law." The statement also "condemned" the suicide attack in Dimona and called upon the Palestinians to stop rocket attacks against "innocent civilians." » Read more

Hamas: Don't Rule Out More Border Breaches ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post February 11, 2008 - 9:28pm "Don't rule out the possibility of hoards of Palestinians bursting through the borders of Israel and Jordan just like they did at the Rafah border crossing into Egypt," Hamas's deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk warned on Saturday. In an interview with Qatari newspaper Ayam, Marzouk said that Hamas would carry out suicide bombings "as required," and insisted that Israel could not break the spirit of the Palestinian people. » Read more

Palestinian Divisions Serve No One ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) February 11, 2008 - 9:24pm Palestinians themselves are first and foremost to blame for the breakdown in their internal relations and the split between Fateh and Hamas and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is especially true of the fierce military clashes in Gaza that led to this division between the two major Palestinian factions and the two main areas of Palestinian territory. » Read more

In Gaza, Cars Are Cooking With Gas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Toronto Star by Oakland Ross - February 11, 2008 - 9:20pm At least one line of business still seems to be booming in this benighted land, and it does not involve firing rockets. It involves tinkering with cars. "We are under siege," says Ali Awad, 48, an automobile mechanic who is especially adept at a certain procedure ideally suited to the strapped circumstances that nowadays prevail in the Gaza Strip, where punitive sanctions imposed by Israel have crippled an already stumbling economy. "We have to survive. We cannot just go out and steal." » Read more

Ramon: Agreement Of Principles, Not Full Peace Deal, Likely In 2008 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press February 11, 2008 - 9:18pm Vice Premier Haim Ramon on Monday appeared to scale back expectations for reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians this year, saying instead that Israel hoped the two sides would reach a declaration of principles and not necessarily a final agreement. On a January visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, President George Bush said that an Israeli-Palestinian "peace agreement should happen, and can happen, by the end of this year." » Read more

Israel’s Secret Success ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Daniel Gavron - (Opinion) February 11, 2008 - 9:16pm SOMETHING strange is happening to us Zionists in the 60th year of the state of Israel: we are repudiating our astonishing success. If in the 1880s (the start of Zionist settlement in what is now Israel) or in 1948 (the War of Independence) or even in 1967 (the Six-Day War) somebody had said that one day virtually the entire world, including all the Arab nations, would accept the existence of the State of Israel in 78 percent of the land of Israel, he would have been regarded as either idiotically optimistic or clinically insane. That, however, is where we are today. » Read more

February 8th

Open The Rafah Crossing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) February 8, 2008 - 7:55pm Following a brief and sporadic hiatus, the cycle of violence recently resumed on both sides in the Gaza Strip. During the past three days, Israel killed at least 16 Palestinians, and heavy barrages of rockets slammed into Sderot and other communities bordering Gaza in response to Israel's retaliation for the suicide bombing in Dimona. The Israel Defense Forces used ground and air forces in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. » Read more

Mccain Found A Tool With Which To Woo Conservative Republicans: Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) February 8, 2008 - 7:54pm There's been a lot of talk lately about John McCain's problem with the more conservative (and religious) right wing of the Republican Party. In Super Tuesday McCain won among self-identified conservatives in only three of the nine states that were covered by the exit polls I looked at. His real strength is among moderates. » Read more

Ticking Bomb ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel And Avi Issacharoff - February 8, 2008 - 7:53pm Despite the closing of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt yesterday, it seems that the next attack, kidnapping or suicide bombing carried out by a Palestinian group against Israelis, in Sinai or the southern Negev, is just a matter of time. With the border remaining completely open for 12 days, it is difficult to estimate the amount of arms and munitions that were brought into the Strip. » Read more